


You and Me and an Apple Tree

by ERNest



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Birthday Presents, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Trees
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-08
Updated: 2013-07-08
Packaged: 2017-12-18 04:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/875519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ERNest/pseuds/ERNest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina has two best friends. One of them is forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You and Me and an Apple Tree

Regina wakes up and throws on a walking cloak so she can go out to meet her best friend. She sneaks past her mother’s master bedroom and down the servant’s staircase. The grass is still covered with dew and her most faithful companion stands still, waiting and never ever going to leave her behind. She throws her arms around its trunk. “Hello, sweetie,” she says and then begins her work. She searches the nearby ground for any weeds that dare encroach on its territory. “Don’t worry, honey,” she promises, “I’ll take care of you.” Her work complete, she climbs up into the branches, where she sits and watches the world go by. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“What are you doing in my tree?” A snotty boy taps her foot as it dangles down through the leaves.  
“Not your tree; it’s my tree.” She falls backwards and hangs from her knees to look at him. “I come here every other day to take care of it and it loves me more than anything. So back off.”  
“Oh yeah? I come here /every/ day. I love this tree more than you do, so it’s obviously mine.” He sticks his tongue out at her.  
“But…no” She clings to its branches for guidance. “We need each other!” She smiles at him. “Besides. It’s my land so I own everything on it.”  
“You’re a baby, you can’t own the clothes you’re wearing.”  
Regina drops to the ground and stands up to her full height. “I am twelve years old,” she announces. “And my mother is Cora. Who are you?”  
“Daniel,” he answers. “I’m eleven.”  
“You see? I’m in charge of you now.” She knows he can’t argue this, so she punches him on the shoulder.  
“Ow! What was that for?”  
“Tag!” she says happily, “You’re it.”

Regina picks her way along the garden path, smiling because he’s going to be at the end of it and so is the apple tree, so they will spend the afternoon leaning their backs together, sharing stories like apples and looking up at the sun.  
“Hey, you’re sitting under my tree!” she calls as if it hasn’t belonged to both of them almost as long as either of them knew it alone. It’s a tradition for her to say it, just like it’s a tradition for him to get up and hug her.  
“Hey, I got you something,” he says this time, and she squeals with delight.  
“What? No you didn’t!” She knows though, that Daniel doesn’t lie, and her toes wriggle in anticipation.  
“Happy Birthday, Regina.” He holds out the most delicate wreath of flowers she has ever seen and hesitates to put it on her head, as if she’s afraid she won’t like it.  
“Thank you Daniel,” she says, “You have no idea how great this is.”  
“This? It’s just some daisies. No big deal,” he says, embarrassed, but he doesn’t know how much more it really is. It’s beautiful because someone made it for her and because the hands that linked the flowers are so wonderful and she tries to explain everything about it, and very nearly succeeds.  
“Sure, I’ll take it.” He bows. “Lady Regina, it has been an honor.”  
She hits him lightly. “That’s QUEENgina to you,” she says, and he laughs.

The shade stretches out like a fourth person sharing the afternoon with Regina and Daniel and their apple tree. He has an arm around her shoulder, just like the way shadows gently gather at the trunk and she loves the slight pressure that keeps her connected to the earth. The leaves rustle about their heads just as he shifts closer to her, and then he kisses her and everything applauds.  
“Really?” It was too amazing to believe it without confirmation.  
He pulls her closer to him as he says “Really really,” so she kisses him again.  
Later she says they need to commemorate this somehow. She takes out a knife to carve their initials, but he grabs her wrist.  
“No!” he says, panicked, “You don’t want to hurt our oldest friend, do you?”  
She finds a piece of parchment and writes his name in her flowing script. He writes hers in a messy scrawl that somehow manages to be beautiful, or maybe it’s just her eyes seeing wrong. They bury it at the roots of the tree. “If this doesn’t keep our love safe,” Daniel says, “then nothing will.”

After her life is over (because his is) she goes to the apple tree to talk to it (it’s still around to hear). “I wish I’d never met him,” she bursts out “Then he’d still be alive and happy and I wouldn’t even know.” But she knows that that’s not good enough. They needed the time that they had, even when it ended too soon. She falls to the ground and finds the comforting solidness of the trunk. She lies there and sobs until she is completely spent. “This is all your fault,” she mutters when she can cry no more, “If you weren’t such a perfect tree, we’d never have kept coming back.” But she still can’t bring herself to hate it.

She calls a parley which she is certain the little girl will agree to if she thinks it will save her true love. And then she heads to the tree. “Don’t worry, Daniel,” she says as she climbs, “we’ll have our revenge.” She finds the shiniest most perfect apple and picks it tenderly. “Thank you,” she says to the best friend she’s managed to keep. She works her magic and goes to the place where her own true love is buried.

She insists that Rumplestiltskin add a line in the contract that says the tree comes with them when the curse is cast.  
When she wakes up and this morning is just like every other, the way the world should be, she goes first to her closet because the clothes make the woman and then to the window because the kingdom makes the queen. She stands there and takes everything in, and then sees something in her own yard that makes her smile and smile. “Hello, sweetie,” she says delightedly, though she shouldn’t be so surprised that the imp kept his promise.


End file.
